Boardroom Insights

Bob Ravener is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer for the Dollar General Corporation, a Fortune 200 publicly traded company. In this capacity, Mr. Ravener has leadership responsibility for all Human Resources initiatives for a $15+ billion company with more than 90,000 employees in over 10,000 stores. Prior to joining Dollar General, Mr. Ravener was Senior Vice President US Partner Resources, for the Starbucks Coffee Company. In this role, Mr. Ravener was responsible for the leadership and support of the people priorities and initiatives affecting more than 125,000 employees, across more than 10,000 company-operated and licensed stores. Prior to that assignment, Mr. Ravener served as Vice President, Partner Resources-Eastern Division. Before joining Starbucks, Mr. Ravener served as Vice President, Human Resources for The Home Depot. During his tenure there, he held roles as both Vice President Human Resources for the Store Support Center, and as Vice President Human Resources for one of three domestic divisions. In the latter role, Mr. Ravener was responsible for the Human Resources leadership of almost 700 stores and more than 100,000 employees in 23 states. Prior to joining the company in 2003, he was with Footstar, Inc., the second largest footwear retailer in the US, serving for three years as Vice President, Chief Personnel Officer with a workforce of 22,000 and over 5,000 locations. He then moved into operations as a Senior Vice President, leading a $300 million business with over 2,000 employees. Mr. Ravener’s retail experience also includes start-up operations, new business development, and acquisition integration. Before joining Footstar, Mr. Ravener spent eleven years with PepsiCo in positions of increasing responsibility in Human Resources, earning awards for leadership development and safety improvement. His experience at PepsiCo included roles as a Senior Human Resource Generalist as well as benefits operations, safety and risk, and business re-engineering.

Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Ravener was in the US Navy, having served as a Strategic Weapons Submarine Officer. He finished his active duty service at the US Naval Academy where he served as an instructor, coach, and recruiter. He also spent time in the Naval Reserves following active duty.

Mr. Ravener is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he earned distinction as a leader, intercollegiate varsity baseball player, and is past president of his class. He also earned an MBA in General Management from New York University. Mr. Ravener has been actively involved in service to the community through military veterans outreach, coaching of youth sports teams, Habitat for Humanity, and other volunteer efforts. He is a member of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation Board and has previously served on his community board for the Boys and Girls Club and the Ramapo College Board of Governors. In February of 2004, Mr. Ravener was appointed by the Secretary of Labor to the President’s National Hire Veterans Committee and in 2007, was appointed to the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Veterans Employment, Training, and Employer Outreach. In 2011 Mr. Ravener was also recognized in the Human Resources community as a Top 10 HR Breakaway Leader and under his leadership Dollar General has been nationally recognized for military support and training excellence.